


I Know What it's Like

by Deer_in_the_headlights



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, MJ already knows Peter is Spidey, MJ gets mugged, MJ may be a tad ooc, This is cute but sad yikes, also peter occasionally calls MJ M bc its cute, lots o' tears, lots of swearing, probably too much swearing, sad backstory man, when will I not write hurt comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 20:16:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13325697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deer_in_the_headlights/pseuds/Deer_in_the_headlights
Summary: Patrol was always Peter's favorite part of the day. He didn't, you know, like the fact that people were stealing or mugging or beating other people up. Patrol was just where he felt the freest. Who else got to spend their afternoons swinging around Queens?Patrol was always the best part of Peter's day, except for that one day MJ almost got mugged.Or: In which MJ and Peter cry and cuddle a lot.TW for muggings/getting cut. It's not too graphic or accurate because I haven't been cut or mugged sooooo





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TW for muggings/someone getting cut/slashed/parent death  
> Read the tags.  
> Have you read them?  
> Okay now you know that Michelle knows about Spider-man
> 
> She's not happy about it but she knows and Peter knows she knows.
> 
> Okay got it?
> 
> Have fun reading, nerd.

Patrol was always Peter's favorite part of the day. He didn't, you know, like the fact that people were stealing or mugging or beating other people up. Patrol was just where he felt the freest. Who else got to spend their afternoons swinging around Queens?

Patrol was always the best part of Peter's day, except for that one day MJ almost got mugged.

_____

"Get the FUCK AWAY FROM ME!"

Shit. 

Peter would know that voice anywhere. He swung off the roof into the alleyway below him. He was right. Michelle was there, spewing insults at the seedy-looking guy attempting to wrestle her bag away from her. He had her pressed up like a ball against the wall, attempting to keep her attacks at bay. Her curly hair was flopping around and there was something weird going on with her, something he'd never seen before. But, then again, he'd never seen her get mugged before. 

He ran up to the mugger, and he'd already punched the guy in the face before he saw the knife he was holding.

Before he saw Michelle's shirt, torn at the shoulder, red oozing out.

Peter webbed up the guy on one side of the alley, knife on the other. He stuck a "This person tried to mug someone." post-it on the absolute asshole who'd just cut Michelle. Michelle.  
Hurt. Michelle is hurt. He had to get her home. Like, now.

"Hey, MJ, you okay?" She had been crumpled against the wall, knees to her chest, arm holding her slashed shoulder. "MJ?" She lifted her head turned to look at him.  
Holy Fuck. She was crying. Michelle Jones was crying. "Okay, M, I'm gonna take you home and patch you up, is that okay?" Still silent, she nodded. Peter shrugged her bag onto his shoulder and prepared for the swing home. "I'm gonna need you to hold on super tight, tell me if anything hurts and we'll take a break. We're like five minutes from my place, okay?" Again, she nodded, making no move to speak to him. It was so weird, MJ, who endlessly gave him crap for everything was not speaking. He helped her up and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and man if she wasn't hurt he'd be in extra-awkward teenage boy crush mode but right now he was more concerned then hormonal.

So yeah he'd had a giant-ass crush on Michelle since a month after she became the AcaDec captain. But hell if he cared right now. Well, he cared, but the girl who he had the said crush on was probably in shock right now and he needed to get her ass home right now.

"We're heading up. Get ready." And they were soaring through Queens before Michelle or Peter could even comprehend it.  
________________________

By the time they got to his apartment and dropped her on the fire escape, Michelle still hadn't said a word. He shoved her through the window first, as gently as possible, and he followed after she rolled out of the way.

"Hey, M, I'm just gonna go get the gauze and alcohol and stuff." Again, she said nothing. 

Peter returned a few minutes later, holding a plastic tub filled with the Parker's assortment of medical supplies. He had barely gotten in the door when MJ spoke.

"It's not the first time I've gotten mugged." Peter sat next to her on the floor, figuring it was better to just listen as he started to prepare his supplies. Michelle pulled the neck of her shirt down her arm to expose the long slash on her shoulder. It looked like it hurt like hell, but not so deep that she'd need stitches. "I was six. Dad and I went to the store to pick up some bread for dinner or something." She paused. Her eyes were getting watery again and he knew where this conversation was going. "W-we took a s-shortcut through the alley. A m-man pulled out a g g gun and shot hh-him cuz he would'nnt give him his w-wallet." She was full on sobbing now, luckily he had finished bandaging her up while she was talking because she was shaking so hard he wouldn't have been able to. Peter had no clue what to do except hug her. He scooted closer to her, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tightly while she sobbed into his chest.

"I'm so sorry M. I'm so sorry."

They sat like that for hours, Peter holding her and rubbing her back, trying anything to comfort her. He knew what it was like to lose a father. He'd done it twice now. 

Eventually, they both fell asleep, still curled up in a heap on his bedroom floor. 

When May walked in after dinner with an old friend and did her usual swing by Peter's room to see if he was home, she saw them. She saw MJ, the badass friend of Peter's that she knew he had a crush on. He hadn't explicitly told her, but his face around her told her everything. But MJ's face was red, and Peter's shirt was tear-stained. Gauze stuck out of the edge of her shirt, a bottle of rubbing alcohol open on the floor. Peter's arms were wrapped around the other teen and May knew that whatever had happened, it'd probably been Spider-man related. She turned away from the kids, shutting the door and leaving them alone. After the day it looked like they'd had, they deserved it.

_________________________

Peter awoke before MJ, and dashed out to explain to May. 

"Hey so, before you ask nothing happened. Well yeah, actually shit went down. MJ was getting mugged and the dude cut her so I took her back here and bandaged her up but yeah it wasn't her first time being mugged, her dad died in while getting mugged and she saw and she was six so can you please not ask her about it?"

"Hey, hey Pete, calm down. I saw you last night and figured some shit happened to her." May said soothingly. They stood in silence for a moment, before MJ flew out of his bedroom.

"Shit! Fuck! Shit! My mom is probably gonna report me missing ShIT!" She showed him her phone, with what seemed to be a million calls and texts from her mom. That was understandable, because the woman had lost her husband to a mugging, MJ was 16, and they lived in New York City.

"MJ! Calm down, I'll walk you home and if you need me to explain what happened to her I will, okay?"

"Okay." She grabbed his hand and whisked him out the door. Now that they weren't in danger and she was holding his hand, his body activated extra-awkward teenage crush mode. She let go of his hand and they walked all the way in silence before Michelle spoke as hey reached the door of her complex.

"Hey, arachnid-ass, thanks for what you did for me yesterday." Peter was going to open his mouth to respond, but she kissed his cheek and dashed inside.

Shit, he's got it bad.


	2. Tiptoeing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michelle had no idea how the hell she was going to face Peter. It was now Monday and she was way more nervous to see him then she should've been. Sure, she was weirdly nervous around him even though he was one of her two friends and she was definitely not attracted to him. Oh right, probably because he saw her cry and held her while she spilled her tragic backstory to him and they slept in his room and then she thanked him by kissing his cheek. Real smart MJ, real smart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot more swearing this chapter because it's there's Michelle's POV and angst so yeah   
> TW: Panic attack. (badly written and with +++ when it starts and ends for skipping purposes)

Michelle had no idea how the hell she was going to face Peter. It was now Monday and she was way more nervous to see him then she should've been. Sure, she was weirdly nervous around him even though he was one of her two friends and she was definitely not attracted to him. Oh right, probably because he saw her cry and held her while she spilled her tragic backstory to him and they slept in his room and then she thanked him by kissing his cheek. Real smart MJ, real smart.

When she got to lunch Peter and Ned were huddled close together, probably talking about Star Wars or some shit. She slid into her usual place beside Peter and whipped out "To Kill a Mockingbird" in an attempt to tune out whatever nerdy shit they were talking about today. But not really tune it out because it was kind of cute when Peter got all riled up. Goddamnit, why couldn't she stop thinking about a 16-year-old amateur superhero? 

"Oh, shit hi MJ we're just talking about, um, Star Wars? Yeah. We're talking about Star Wars. Obi-Wan Kenobi or Mace Windu?" Okay, so Ned was lying. 

"Losers. Also, you know I can tell when you're lying your ass off."

"We were just talking about Spidey stuff and old habits die hard ya know." 

"Sure Ned."

Peter looked mortified. 

Fuck.

They were talking about her, weren't they? She fucking trusted Peter with that and he just goes and tells Ned? She has to get out of here. Like, now.

"Well, I have to go to the library, bye nerds." That came out harsher than she wanted it to. She just kept fucking things up, didn't she? She was out of the lunchroom before they could even get a word in edgewise. 

______________________________________

"I think she knows we were talking about her."

"Yeah no shit, Ned." Peter dropped his head into his hands. He was a giant asshole. She probably thought he was telling Ned the stuff about her dad. He was only telling him the part where she kissed his cheek and he'd made up some bullshit story about her getting her bag stolen. It wasn't too far off, but it also wasn't nearly the truth. "I have to go find her she's probably so pissed at me right now I'm such an asshole."

"Dude don't leave me here all alo-"

Peter was out of the lunchroom and headed to the library before Ned even finished what he was saying. He was speedwalking to the library and rehearsing his apology when he heard wheezing gasps from the janitor's closet. It was probably MJ. Even if it wasn't MJ, he should help whoever it is. 

_____________________________________  
+++  
Michelle hadn't had a panic attack in three months. Now, she was having one because Peter fucking Parker was a colossal asshole and telling Ned what she had trusted him with. 

She'd trusted him.

That's what you get for trusting someone. Stabbed in the fucking back. Well, technically, sliced on the shoulder. She was trying to breathe normally, and she couldn't even do that. All she could think about was how betrayed she felt. Her mind was telling her that Peter and Ned were only friends with her to get dirt on her so they could maybe gain some popularity.

But that's not Peter and Ned. Her mind seemed to think otherwise. Her thoughts that weren't really her own were tightening their grip on her mind. Her breathing was increasing in speed and then she'd probably pass out holy shit she needed to stop this.

The universe seemed to have other plans. 

Arachnid-ass opened the fucking door. He was the last possible person she wanted to see right now.

"Get-the-fuck-away-from-me." Each word was followed by a short and quick breath.

"M, I'm so sorry, wait, what the fuck? Are you hyperventilating? Okay, you are. Stupid question." She was trying to drown him out, but he was genuinely worried. He wouldn't come find her and be genuinely worried if he was actually an asshole. Did he tell Ned? He sat next to her and ohmygod he better not touch her because no one touches her when she's having a panic attack.

"Can you try breathing with me? Please?" Oh, why the hell not. If she can talk she can yell at him for being such a bag of dicks. She copied him and eventually she'd calmed down enough to talk to him.  
+++  
"You're a dick. That was such a dick move. I tell you the worst thing that's ever happened to me and you go and tell Ned?"

"Okay, I deserve this. But I didn't tell Ned that part I literally only told him that you kissed my cheek."

"And why the hell would you tell him that?" MJ didn't know when or why, but somehow her head ended up on Peter's shoulder. 

"Because I needed help figuring it out, okay?"

"And why the actual fuck would you need Ned to understand that I kissed your cheek?" He suddenly looked like he was contemplating all of his life's choices right now.

"ProbablybecauseIhaveagiantcrushonyouandhaveforlikefivemonthsandyeahIwasadicksoIgetitifyounevertalktomeagai-"

She kissed him. Hard. A little bit to make him shut up and because he didn't tell Ned about the worst day of her life, but mostly because Holy Shit he actually liked her. 

He was too shocked to kiss her back and before her mind could get wound up again, He kissed her, because he wanted to. MJ decided that she liked this whole kissing thing. Sure, it was super awkward because it was both of their first kisses and they were in a high school janitor's closet. Sure, their teeth banged together because maybe she went in a little too hard the first time. 

But it was perfect to her. 

It was like the tidal wave that'd been her thoughts of hatred and betrayal receded. She pulled away because some people had to breathe, her head back resting on his shoulder. She felt safe. She felt okay.

"You're still an asshole."

"Yeah but I'm your asshole now."

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard you say, Parker."

"Aw, shit. but like you know what I meant."

"Yeah whatever loser."

"So like can we go tell Ned that we're dating or something."

"Only If we're dating now."

"Are we?"

"Yeah sure whatever."

She kissed him again before they had to face the rest of the world, trying for one last moment in their solitude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like I wrote another chapter today because I love them.
> 
> Leave any suggestions in the comments!

**Author's Note:**

> I May (hahahahaha) make this multi-chapter. (I'm definitely gonna if I can ever stop watching the end of this stupid movie. Especially The Look. Yeah, you know the one.)  
> Hope you liked it.  
> Comment any suggestions/storylines you'd like to see.


End file.
